AN: So, same day, but we're with the outcasts. I'm sorry, but there will be another little cliffhanger at the end of this chapter. No more after this, though… at least for a while :)

Go, Team Outcast!

JANUARY 8TH

On the outskirts of Bologna, a farmhouse sat in total darkness. The only sounds to be heard were the grunting and whining of the animals in nearby barns. They could likely sense the deadly predators in the vicinity. Hearing muffled voices approach, and then their owners' screams, saw one poor pony die of fright.

Before long, the invaded farmhouse quietened and stilled again, as though nothing had ever occurred. Until, that is, the front door flew from position, straight off its hinges, smashing to splinters on the frosty ground.

Odi had booted the door clean off in his exhilarated state.

"I feel alive again!"

He howled into the night with gleaming red eyes, tossing a gnawed leg over his shoulder. Odi hadn't fed to his fill in months. He'd barely drank a drop in weeks. The blood he'd taken from the farmer and his wife, even sharing the kills with Felix, had soothed his burning throat, his aching legs, his troubled mind. Everything felt better, and because everything had felt so bad, everything now felt amazing!

Irina followed behind him, kicking the stray limb back towards the farmstead. "Do you usually make so much mess?"

Odi looked down and flicked a piece of human flesh from his chest. If that was the state of his clothes, he could well imagine the state of his face. He looked back up with cheeky smile. "No," he said. "But its been a while."

Felix flashed them all a similar, bloody grin. He had no excuse for making such a mess of himself, he simply enjoyed doing so on occasion. He kept his baby brother close by, encouraging the child along. Alec preferred to chase his food when he had the chance, and he'd complained to Felix that is was no fun taking the humans from their beds. His complaints disappeared once he was well fed.

Odi howled again, enjoying the buzz, and Irina clouted him to shut him up. "Are you trying to alert the whole world?!"

"He's just happy," Corin told her, knowing they were safely far away from any living humans who could hear them.

Kate came out last, stumbling along with Demetri as she clung to her aching tummy, although her eyes shone red like the others.

"Are you still hungry?" Demetri asked her. There weren't any more humans, but he offered to fetch her one of the horses they could hear whining in the barn.

Kate shook her head. "I prefer drinking bloodwine, that's all."

"Didn't stop you, though, did it?" Felix pointed out to the girl.

Kate shied away. She simply didn't have the will power to resist human blood, though she would have happily supped from the animals they could smell close by instead. She had suggested they should, as Basileus' human blood ban was still in force in Volterra. The others gleefully pointed out that they weren't in Volterra anymore, and that is was a little late to be worrying about coven rules when they had done a midnight flit to take on a pack of wolves.

As Kate played their earlier conversation over in her mind, she felt the blood she had just taken so easily rise up in her throat. With one arm wrapped around her stomach already, she clamped the other hand over her mouth. It was too late. All she had drank came up and out, splattering the ground at her feet.

Irina looked to her little sister in disgust. "You are gross."

The others showed more concern for the girl who shook where she stood. Corin came to Kate's rescue, wrapping her arm around the younger girl and guiding her away from the scene.

"We'll find the well and get you cleaned up," she said. "There will be one here somewhere." As Corin spoke, she used her gift to slowly increase Kate's contentment. "Maybe we'll pop to the barn, too," she said, thinking of those horses and the sustenance they would afford.

The little gang of outcasts found themselves seats whilst they waited for Corin and Kate to return. Irina flopped herself down on an upturned bucket and leaned against the stones of the house. Felix and Demetri sat themselves on the back of a wagon, where Alec climbed up and lay down behind them, snoozing gently.

Odi couldn't sit. The exhilaration was too much to stay still. "Are we going to get a move on?"

"Yeah," Irina agreed that they needed to move on, though she wasn't as restless as him. "The overlords might already be on our tail."

"Will they come after us?" Odi wasn't so sure.

"Hello! Have you met our father?" Felix snorted. "Yes, they will come after us."

"They might come for you three," Irina replied. "But the rest of us are our own agents."

Felix and Demetri looked to one another and laughed. "Aunt Carmen loves you girls," Felix told her with confidence. "Uncle Eleazar does, too," he added, with less surety.

"Sucks to be you lot," Odi told them. "Me and Corin can do what we like."

"Because your old man won't care at all?" Felix asked, shaking his head. "Or you mother?"

"They only adopted me, Felix." Odi turned away. Thinking of his parents killed the last of his human blood buzz. And his note. That was a dick move, he reminded himself. "They can replace me with…" he stopped just in time before he said a certain someone's name. "They can replace me with someone else."

"Yeah, that's how it is for us, too, dickhead," Felix pointed out.

"We're all adopted," Demetri added. "That's how vampires make families."

"Parents don't tend to replace their kids, Odi, they just add new ones to the brood." Felix dug his knuckles into Demetri's head and scrubbed his skull - it would have been playful if he hadn't done it so hard. "Look at all the extra siblings I got saddled with."

Demetri jabbed his brother in the ribs for that sly comment - once he'd sorted his hair out.

"Oh, yeah…"

It suddenly dawned on Odi that all the families he knew in his vampiric life were adopted. Aro had created his family over the centuries, adopting one child after another. Even the great creator had done it. Odi had been around when Basileus brought Eleazar home, and again with Carlisle. Life had changed for Aro each time, but there was no doubt that Aro was still the creator's son.

He saw miniature families growing in the guard, too, now he stopped to think about it - Renata had taken Corin under her wing right from the start. Quite motherly, really, Odi thought. More recently, Phillipe and Richard were doing the same with Turk. Odi had been so concerned with the relationships affecting him that he hadn't stopped to give much thought the ones emerging around him.

"What's wrong with you?" Felix asked, breaking the trance-like state Odi had fallen into whilst he was deep in thought.

"I never thought of it like that," Odi replied, still away in thought. "Maybe they weren't going to replace me with him?"

Irina only half heard his words. "What are you muttering about?" she asked.

Odi shook his head. "Nothing," he said, needing to put such things out of his mind if they were still to find the wolves.

"Well," Irina continued. "Those lovely 'parent things' you're talking about will be after us by sun up."

"She's right," Felix agreed. They had been at the farm for a good two hours at least - it was time to move.

He shouted in the rough direction Corin had taken Kate that they needed to move on. In a flash the girls were back, and the outcasts continued into the night.

…

The outcast crew ran without stopping for ten hours straight. Ten! They only went as fast as their slowest (Alec) but it had still exhausted them all. Having to stick to the edges of woodland hadn't helped as they were running on uneven ground. Kate and Irina both fell a few times, being so unused to such journeys. One of Kate's boots had a tear to the toe which slowed her even more. She was quite grateful Alec had come after all, as his speed was considerably slower than the rest of them so no one noticed that she could barely keep up.

Having ran through daylight hours, the evening was setting in. Felix and Demetri had mused over the time for a while as they ran. By the time Odi brought them to a halt when they reached the town of Limoges, the boys guessed it was about six in the evening.

Odi confirmed it, checking his watch. "They'll be half way here by now," he added, thinking of the overlords as Irina called them.

He wasn't really thinking of the 'overlords' at all, of course. He was thinking of his mother finding his note. The note that told her exactly what he thought of both of his parents… Odi had gone right back to the start of his relationship with Magnus and Freyr. From the moment they had found him and- reluctantly, as Odi told it -taken him into their home. He wrote that he blamed Magnus for his brothers, Ivar and Sven, leaving, and how he knew what Magnus really thought of him. Odi explained that he'd heard what the man had said when he discovered his sons were missing… something Magnus had denied saying every day since.

'You used to love us so much it smothered us - since they left you've been cold as ice', he had written to his mother. And to his father, 'you were so distant back then that we barely knew you at all, but now I can't breathe without you judging me'.

The kid wiped away a stray tear as he looked around their surroundings, hiding his pain from the others.

'And now I'm leaving, too. You've done this. You pushed us all to leave. Keep Caius as my replacement. You'll push him away, too, eventually.'

Such spite, such hate. He hadn't meant a word of his note. Not really. He hadn't fed, he was in a bad place. Some distance from the coven and a full feed and now all Odi wanted to do was turn around, go home, burn his vile words and fall into his parents arms. Loving arms, protective arms.

If Mom has read that note she'll never forgive me, he thought. Worse than that, it would break her heart. What have I done?!

He looked behind him to the rest of the outcasts. I've led a bunch of kids half way across France because I was hungry?!

"Do you really want to do this?" he asked them, his voice small.

"Fuck, yeah!" Felix called back.

He was ready for action. The human blood, the running, the naughtiness of what they were doing. He was so excited! He could see the others didn't share his enthusiasm, however.

"Listen, guys," he said, bouncing about like a puppy needing a piss. "We only have to kill a few. One each. Then we return victorious."

Odi nodded along. It wasn't a bad plan, as plans go. One each was more than manageable. Seven of us… hell, me and Felix could do that alone! "Alright, alright," he replied. "We're close, go up there-" he said, pointing to a rise in the ground where the trees still bunched together for good coverage "-and I'll go and scout around."

The others were less keen, but they followed Felix up the hill.

One each? Irina repeated to herself. Shit.

Having never been on a mission before, Irina hadn't known what to expect. She kind of thought they would run into a werewolf or two- which would be exciting, she imagined, having never met one before -the boys would kill them, and they could do the 'return victorious' thing Felix had mentioned.

It didn't take long for Odi to join them on the wooded hill. He couldn't see the caves they should see… where are they?

Irina spotted Odi looking about like he was lost. "Are you absolutely sure we're in the right place?"

"Yes," Odi snapped back. "For the last fucking time, yes!"

He wasn't sure, though. He had spent the last wolf mission wrecked on dungeon blood with the other guards and Caius whilst Magnus did all the hard work. The surroundings looked familiar to him, but were they in the right place?

"Then where the fuck are the wolves?!" Irina shot back. It was one thing for her to use her annoyed tone, but she couldn't take it from someone else.

"We should be able to smell them by now," Corin said, sniffing at the air. "I'm getting a whiff of something." She had only been on one mission where wolves were involved, and Freyr had kept her out of the action - that was long before the shield maiden had become a coven master.

Felix mimicked his girlfriends actions. "Wolves have passed through here," he said. "Recently, too."

"It's those ones over there!" Odi burst out. "That's the caves!"

Squinting in the direction Odi pointed, the other outcasts could just about make out some movement at the hills behind the nearby village. There was a little smoke rising from a fire there, and they could make out the dark openings of caves.

Alec's nerves were rising. He slipped his hand into his big brother's and asked, "How many are there?"

"I can't tell from here, buddy," Felix replied, giving his hand a squeeze. "Five, maybe a couple more inside the caves?"

"There could be some in those huts, too," Demetri pointed out.

"Wow," Odi said, mainly to himself, ignoring the questions the others were throwing out. "I can't believe I found this place."

For once, after hearing Odi's surprise in actually finding the caves, Irina and Corin were on the same side, both calling Odi a dick for claiming he knew where he was leading them.

Odi soon snapped back. "I got us here, didn't I?!"

As the three of them descended into an argument, Felix kept his brothers out of the way. If Demetri and Alec weren't with him, he might have joined in simply for the fun of it. But they were with him. In spite of what his parents believed, Felix did love his little brothers and he always protected them where he could.

"Felix," Alec called out, looking up to his big brother who held his hand. "What do you think our parents will do to us if we fail at this?"

Felix chuckled to himself. "I think they will be quietly disappointed but ultimately proud of our attempts."

"Seriously?" Demetri asked, voicing Alec's thoughts, too.

Felix laughed again, shaking his head. "We are definitely dead meat." He seemed to miss how frightened his little brothers were as he continued, "Literally, because the only way we can fail is if the wolves kill us."

Demetri sucked in his breath. Felix was right - the only way they could fail would be if they died… he gulped again. "No failing, got it."

Shit, Felix cursed himself hearing the shaking tone Demetri used. I've scared them. Alec clinging to his side confirmed his thoughts.

"Dem, we've been on so many missions," he said to the boy. "And you, Alec." He gave his baby brother a squeeze and sat down on the grass, pulling both boys down with him. "You need to rest before we go over there, but we are going to do this."

Felix spoke with such confidence that both his brothers believed they could do it. They could totally take on a den of wolves and come out on top. Definitely.

"Rest first," Felix told them, laying Alec's head in his lap. "You, too, Kate," he called to the girl, inviting her to join them.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Odi snapped when he'd lost his argument to the girls. "We need to get going!"

"No," Felix snapped right back at him. "We need to rest first. That's the rule."

Odi huffed and puffed but he had no argument in return. On missions Caius and Magnus ran, the rule was always to find your enemy, stay somewhere safe and rest from the journey, and then attack. 'You don't just go rolling into battle when your exhausted from travel'. How many times had his old man told him that on missions? Too many to count.

Corin and Irina joined the others in the grass to catch their breath. That left Odi on his feet.

In the little outcast group, there were some 'sleepers' and some 'non-sleepers'. Of course, the non-sleepers, Odi, Corin, and Irina, all actually slept, too. They just didn't need to sleep every night like the other four. Felix liked to consider himself in their group, too, but everyone knew he went to bed every night, so it was bullshit. Odi and Corin both claimed to never sleep, that they were fully mature vampires. Felix had been with Corin for long enough to know that wasn't true. No one was really sure about Odi, though. Felix saw a way to use that to his advantage.

"You don't need sleep, do you?" Felix asked the kid.

"No!" Odi shot back, insulted. "I'm a grown man."

Irina laughed at that one! Actually, they all tittered away to Odi's claim, but they others had the good grace to hide their amusement.

Felix merely offered him a smug smile. "Good," he replied. "You can keep watch and work out when we attack, then."

Odi stomped away and flew up a nearby tree trunk to get a good look at their surroundings… and maybe catch a few zeds where no one could see him.

…

Odi planned on waking the outcasts after an hour, but he had nodded off himself in that time, so it was closer to two hours when he rejoined the group.

"What time is it?" Alec yawned, his eyes still closed as he stretched out his back.

"Eight," Odi told him. "The wolves have moved into the caves already. It's time."

Corin eyed her friend, picking up on Odi's tone - he didn't sound so sure of himself now the buzz of a fresh feed had fully subsided. "So, we're really doing this, then?"

"Huh?" Odi shook his head, again he had been lost in thought. "Yes, I guess so. Unless you don't want to?"

"I want to," Demetri replied, determined to show his big brother that he was still fun, willing, good to have around.

As Demetri, a young and particularly small boy, had sounded so resolute, the others found they couldn't back out. Not without showing themselves up as weak. And what self respecting young vampire would want that?

Odi gulped down the rising bile in his throat. "How are we going to do this, then?"

No one had an answer ready. Of those who had been on missions, they were used to being directed in action. The only battle direction Irina and Kate had ever received had been to avoid battle!

"Well, I guess…" Felix looked around the group. "It should probably be me and you at the front," he said to Odi.

"Shouldn't it be Alec?" Irina asked. "He can subdue them all."

"Brilliant!" Odi replied, having forgotten about the young vampire with the terrific gift. "Alec can subdue them, Felix and I will kill them. Easy." He really did breathe a sigh of relief realising how easy it would be to complete their mission. "Then straight back home, right?"

Felix too breathed a little easier. "Definitely."

Irina didn't say so, but she couldn't wait to get home, either. Home? Is that really what she thought of her Volterran prison? Maybe not completely, but it was preferable to napping in frozen grass or entering a werewolf den.

The outcasts trouped along at a human pace. They told themselves it was so as not to wear themselves out with more running before the fight, but their reticence for what they were about to do may have had something to do with their slow speed.

Odi and Felix took the lead, with the latter whispering, "We will have to get a bit of fighting in though, or we can't claim it as our victory."

Odi agreed. "Alec," he called to the boy. "You need to wait until we tell you to use your gift, okay? We need to kill a few unaided first."

"All of us?" Kate asked, doubting her abilities.

"You'll have a better tale to tell afterward if you try," her sister told her. Irina was certain Alec's gift would save them from getting too involved.

Kate nodded back, feeling nauseous as ever. The wolf stench wasn't helping. "The closer we get, the worse it smells."

"Wait until we're in the caves," Demetri (not so) helpfully offered.

"No!" Felix snapped at his brother. "We do not go into the caves."

Demetri scowled at his brother pulling rank. He'd only been having a joke.

"I'm serious, Dem," Felix barked back. "Going into those caves would be certain death."

"Alright, alright!"

Felix nodded and continued to walk towards the small village. Now they were closer, he could see calling the place a village had been something of an exaggeration. Not even a hamlet, really. Five or so wooden huts with straw roofs, a few smoldering fires… that was it.

Looking to Odi, it was clear to the young prince that he thought the same. "This must be a small pack."

"It's going to be easier than we thought," Odi replied.

Even better than the wolves being few in number, they also appeared to be fairly young. Their age, or thereabouts. Felix whooped into the air! "We're not going to need Alec at all!"

Alec wasn't pleased about it, but the others seemed to relax. The youngest prince saw his fellow outcasts had even become a little excited. Bastards.

Felix's whooping had seen the small group of human shaped wolves still and stare into the blackening evening. Vampire's had better eyesight that wolves, whether human shaped or otherwise, so the outcasts could see quite clearly as the wolf youth dared one another to find the source of the noise they had heard. Eventually, one of the lads was jostled to the front of their pack and, once prodded forward by another boy, began to approach.

Kate leaned into her sister. "They're more human than I thought they'd be. Fighting a human seems wrong, don't you think?"

"I think we'd do well not to sentimentalise wild animals," Irina replied, though she, too, had been prepared for facing actual wolves in wolf-form. Seeing a human boy simply made her hungry. The smell was enough to put her off, however. To a vampire's nose, wolves had a terrible stink about them, whether they wore fur or their human skin.

As the boy got closer, his instincts began kicking in. He, too, picked up the scent of the strange young people before him. He'd only come across that smell once before in his young life, but it would stay with him for the rest of his days. Vampires. They had ravaged his tribe some years before, two years, he remembered. The vampires that had ripped his parents from him had left only the young and the very old alive. (And only those who were human, at that).

The tribe had banded together with another since then, and now the boy, at the ripe age of sixteen, had seen his status elevated to that of an adult tribe member. In fact, he and his friends, the ones who had pushed him forward to suss out the newcomers, were all adults now in the eyes of the tribe. Not adult enough to attend the meetings of the local wolf packs, which is where the rest of their were, but adult enough to defend their

Straining his eyes as he walked, the boy tried in vain to make out the crest the strangers wore. If they are the same scum, he thought, remembering his dead mother and father, then I will kill them all. If they are not, I'll kill them all anyway. One less vampire in the world is a safer world for us all.

His bones suddenly ached, threatening to perform the rapid transformation into lupine-form - it would seem his inner wolf sought vengeance, too.

"That's close enough, pal!"

The boy came to a halt when Felix called out. "You're right, friend," he said. "I know that crest." Incase his displeasure had carried over in his tone, the boy pooled the saliva in his mouth and spat a great, fat globule to the floor. "Scum."

Felix pulled his shoulders back and stood tall, making sure said crest was fully visible. Somewhere behind him, the others did the same. "Then you know to be careful," he replied. "Do you know who I am?"

Irina rolled her eyes. Egotistical prick.

The wolf-boy shared her thoughts. One of the little group of vampires did look familiar, however, and the boy couldn't take his eyes off that one. "I know what you are," he eventually sneered in response. "That's enough for me to know."

The boy flinched, then, as his friend placed a light hand on his shoulder. "What's happening, Roland?" the fellow tribe boy asked. "Are you making friends with vampires?"

The boy, or Roland, as he appeared to be names, shook his head, his nose wrinkling at the very idea. "I'd die first," he said, and he meant it, too.

"So, what is it you want?" the second wolf-teen asked the band of outcasts. "Not like your kind to send a bunch of brats to our caves."

"We're here to stock up," Odi explained, stepping forward until he was as arms reach from the pair of wolf-boys. "It's cold and we're running low on wolf pelts."

The first boy, Roland, slugged Odi in the face with all his might. Odi simply laughed it off. A wolf in human form may have been a little tougher than your average human, but he was no match for a vampire.

"Calm, Roland. Calm," the second teen said to his friend. "He's got a big mouth, is all."

"Ours are bigger," Roland reminded his pal.

Odi was the one he'd been staring at throughout their short exchange, he was the one Roland could remember from seeing his parents slaughtered on the battle field. From his memories, he knew Odi hadn't done much fighting. Most of the vampires that day sat and drank in the fields, watching the show. That had been a hard pill to swallow for the boy - we weren't even worth getting your hands dirty, he had thought that day, and every day since. Now, though, he said to himself. Now its time to pay back.

Roland glanced over his shoulder to the ten or so members of their tribe who had remained at the caves to protect the homestead whilst the elders met in secret to discuss plans of attacking the vampiric lord of their lands. King Henri, he called himself, and a good number of the French wolf packs were making agreements to take him out once and for all. These scum first, Roland told himself. We can take you on and take you out before the elders return. He gave the others a surreptitious nod to tell them to ready themselves, and then he turned back to Odi.

"Just common, garden twats looking for a fight," he said, appraising the outcasts.

The second boy agreed and began to step back. "If its a fight he wants, we'd better give it to him."

With that, and far faster than the Volterran outcasts had expected, the two boys before them transformed into giant, hairy beasts! The rest of their present pack were quick to follow and within mere moments, the outcasts were surrounded.

"One each, at least," Odi called out. And then he flew at Roland…

…

Felix crowed! His booming voice ricocheted off the walls of the cave and came back at him with as much force as he had sent it out. Hearing the effect only increased his joy, and so he did it again. Poor Alec in his arms covered his ears.

"Shut up, you twat!" Irina said, wincing from the row he was creating.

"Shut up, yourself!" Felix boomed back, purposefully loud. "I've had the time of my life and I want to shout about it!"

He set his baby brother on his feet, but the boy soon fell to the floor, utterly wiped out from using his gift. He'd sent out his fog only when Kate had fled to the caves for cover. With Irina going after her sister, and Demetri already injured, he thought it best to end Felix and Odi's fun. It hadn't been easy for Alec, however. It was hard to direct his fog onto moving, massive wolves, whilst still allowing Odi and Felix to move. It was so much easier to cast a big fog over a whole group at once.

Scooting across the floor on his hands and knees, Alec headed to Demetri and lay his head in his brother's lap and immediately fell into slumber. Had Demetri not been so grateful for Alec ending the battle, he might have pushed the child aside. As it was, he he simply moved Alec's head closer to his knee and away from his hip, which hurt like a bitch.

"Where's my woman?" Felix asked the Denali girls.

"Your woman?" Irina repeated. "Brutish dick."

"Sh, she's… She's checking the caves are s… safe," Kate stuttered to explain.

The poor girl hadn't stood a chance with the wolves. Whilst the others were having a grand old time, Kate had stayed with Alec, away from the action. When a wolf spotted the pair of them, it suddenly bounded in their direction. Alec had moved swiftly in one direction whilst Kate moved in the other - the wolf chose to chase Kate. Running circles around the action, because Kate had no idea what else to do, the wolf eventually caught her up and was snapping at her heels. Quite literally, as it happens, and the wolf managed to sink its teeth into Kate's leg! When she went down to the ground, she shut her eyes and made peace with her certain death.

Kate didn't see Odi charge into the beast as it salivated above her, dripping onto her heaving chest. She opened her eyes in time to see the wolf have its heart ripped out through its shattered rib cage, though. Gross.

After that experience, Kate decided her time in the field was done and she fled to the caves. Or rather, hobbled to the caves with blood pissing out of her open wound. Irina had followed her sister, which Kate was grateful for. The elder Denali girl hadn't shown much interest in Kate's chewed flesh, however, and seemed far more interested in resting from her own efforts at not being eaten by the wolves. Irina had killed two, though, which is more than even she had expected!

"The caves can't be safe for us," Demetri said from the ground where he rested. "We shouldn't be in here."

He had done well in the fight, for such a small boy of fourteen, but he was exhausted. Every muscle ached with fatigue - he had never pushed himself so hard. Even training under Caius when he was pissy with a hangover wasn't as tough as that fight.

"We're not supposed to back ourselves into corners," he continued. "You know what Caius says about this stuff on mission."

"Fuck what Caius says!" Odi crowed, returning to the caves. He had been to check out the surrounding area of the caves to make sure they were clear of werewolf scum, and now he came back hollering and whopping like Felix. "He can't say anything to me ever again - I've run a mission and taken out more wolves than he did on the last one he ran."

"You ran the mission?" Irina asked, eyebrow raised and hands on hip.

"You said it, sweetheart," Odi replied.

He grabbed Irina by the back of her neck and pulled her in, forcing a kiss onto her unmoving lips. Her lips may have been unmoving, but the same couldn't be said for her fist. She thumped the kid hard in his crotch, and watched with a smirk as his eyes widened and he went down to the ground cupping his cock through his britches.

"He was just excited, Irina," Corin tutted.

Irina made a show of tutting back. "That gives him no right to touch me, Corin."

"Whatever," Corin huffed back, stepping over Odi who remained on the floor, curled up in a ball. "The caves are clear," she told the group. "If there are any exits back there, I cannot find them."

"We don't need to skulk out the back," Felix said, wrapping both arms around his girl. "We'll walk out the front with our heads held high, and that's how we're walking back into the coven, too."

Corin giggled at his happiness and rested her head on his chest. Like Demetri, Corin was unused to such a battle and now found herself equally exhausted.

"Do you think we could rest here a while," she asked her big, brave man.

"We can't rest here," Demetri piped up. He wasn't happy they were in the caves at all, let alone making plans to stay! Caius' mission training swam around his head. 'Don't get caught in a trap - backing yourself into a corner is a trap of your own making'.

Felix kissed her head. "We'll have to. Alec's asleep."

Why isn't anyone listening to me?! Demetri gathered his strength to call out louder, "Its not safe!"

"It's not ideal," Felix agreed. "But…"

"But nothing, Felix," Demetri snapped back. "We can go back to the hill to rest, where its safe. This isn't safe."

"I'm tired, too, you know?" Felix told his moaning brother. He pointed at Alec, fast asleep. "I'm not carrying him for miles before I even get to catch my breath."

Irina didn't fancy another round with the wolves - one was enough. She looked around the little gang of outcasts. They were all sporting wounds of one kind or another. Kate and Demetri looked the worst, by far as both were bleeding, Kate from her mangled leg, Demetri from his side from what Irina could see. She and Corin looked similarly roughed up. Irina was pretty sure she had sprained her wrist, possibly even broken. But they may have been from punching Odi rather than fighting the wolves. Even Felix and Odi had wolf-sized scratches on their person. Demetri was right - If there were any wolves left and they came back to the caves, the outcasts were done for.

"We'll give him a wolf to drink from," she said. "I bet that will perk him up."

Without waiting for a reply, Irina headed back to the mouth of the caves and started dragging a dead wolf inside the tunnel.

The young vampires began gagging as soon as Irina returned. The stench in the caves was bad enough, reeking of the wolves who usually inhabited it. Having a great smelly beast in their midst was too much. The stench was so noxious that their eyes reacted first, tearing at the corners before blurring in repulse.

"Did you have to bring it in here?!" Corin snapped, pulling her tunic over her nose. Sadly, her Volturi uniform was saturated with wolf blood - Corin had moved from smelling wolves to tasting them. She threw up her feed from the farm where she stood and flew out of the caves for some fresh air!

Felix began to wake his baby brother up. "Will it help?" he asked Irina, assuming she'd know as she had suggested the idea. "Are wolves safe to drink from?"

"I don't know?" Odi's face screwed up at the very thought of putting his mouth near the stinking beast.

"They must be," Irina said with an air of confidence. "Vampiric blood gives us a boost, I bet wolf blood is the same."

It sounded reasonable enough. Odi shrugged. "They are supernatural, like us." But I bet they taste foul.

"What do you think?" Felix asked Demetri, though he was already leaning towards feeding their brother the beast. "Can't hurt him, even if it doesn't help him, right?"

"I guess?" Demetri had no way of knowing whether wolf blood would help, but he did agree that it couldn't hurt him.

Resolved, Felix pulled the beast a little closer. "Try it, buddy," he encouraged the tired boy. "We need to get out of here and then you can sleep for as long as you like."

Alec was so tired that he appeared not to notice the wolf stench as he nuzzled his face into the fur of the dead beast. Finding skin, he moved some hair aside with his tongue and sunk his fangs in deep. With the wolf being dead, and the heart no longer pumping, Alec had to suck hard on the beast for his feed. With the last of his strength depleted from his efforts, Alec fell away from the wolf and sank back into his biggest brother's arms.

Felix took one look at the boy and laughed. "Well, that didn't work."

"You'll have to carry him," Irina told him, with Demetri agreeing, both keen on leaving the cave.

Felix scoffed. "And what about her?" he asked, jutting his chin in Kate's direction. From the state of the girl's mangled leg, Kate wouldn't be walking far.

"Odi can have her."

Odi smirked at Irina. "I can't have anyone after you sucker punched me in the balls."

The girl soon stepped up to the kid, who was being unusually crude. "Unless you'd like to lose those precious balls entirely, shut your mouth and carry my sister."

He didn't do it consciously, but Odi's hand came in front of him and blocked Irina's access to his favourite parts, just in case she acted on her words. "Alright," he drawled, scooting around the girl to get to Kate.

He never did make it to the young Denali girl, though. Corin came barreling back into the cave. She seemed to no longer care about the stench of Alec's feed, and her eyes no longer watered from it, either. Instead, they were wide and round, terrified!

"There's more!" she hissed, pointing behind her. "More werewolves!"

The young outcasts froze where they were, all frantic in thought, all thinking the same thing - what the fuck do we do?!

"Its okay, its okay," Odi told them, getting his head together. "Wake Alec up," he said. "He can wipe them out with his fog. Problem solved."

Somewhere in his subconscious, Alec must have heard them. He began to stir and looked to the others to be waking of his own accord. Just after he mumbled something incoherent, the smallest of their number began to shake.

Felix looked from Alec to the others and back again. "What the hell…"

Alec shook, he flinched, his teeth began to chatter and when his eyes opened, they had rolled to the back of his head!

They all surrounded the boy- Kate dragged herself across the floor to be nearer, Corin and Odi joined Felix and Demetri on the ground, all trying to wake Alec from whatever was bewitching him.

Irina stood over them all, looking down at the convulsing child in Felix's arms. "It must be the werewolf blood."

Demetri limped to his feet and shoved the girl, hard. "Did you know it would make him sick?" he asked. "Did you?!"

Irina shoved him back. With how tired and fragile Demetri felt from battle, the boy when straight back down to the dusty floor.

"How could I possibly know such a thing?" she replied. She was telling the truth - it was a good idea at the time, she believed. No one else had come up with a better one.

"You were sure it wouldn't make him sick five fucking minutes ago!" Felix raged at her. He held on to his brother as the child spasmed in his grip. "Super blood, you said!"

Irina scoffed back. "I thought it would be like vampiric blood, dick head!"

She didn't particularly care for Alec, but neither did she wish him harm, either. Like most of the Volturi, Alec was another non-entity in her life.

"You're the one who fed him a werewolf, Felix," she reminded the boy.

If Alec hadn't been in his arms, he would have ripped her throat out for that comment. Before the two of them could really set into their argument, they heard the unmistakable sound of werewolves grunting close to the cave.

"They're coming," Corin said, desperately trying to get her breathing under control. "They're big, guys. Bigger than the ones we've faced already."

"Shit!" Felix cursed aloud. "This fight isn't over yet," he whispered to his baby brother. "We need you, Alec."

"I think he's immobilised himself," Demetri pointed out, seeing the haze of a fog covering the boy's small frame.

Odi threw his hands into the air. "Brilliant. That's just fucking brilliant."

Pulling his legs from beneath Alec, Felix eft the boy on the floor with Kate. He went to Corin and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, not that it helped her look any tidier. "Can you make them too happy to fight us?"

"I can try," Corin said, worry lines appearing on her forehead. "But it might just make them happy whilst they are fighting us… which wont help at all."

"Damn it!" Odi cursed, voicing Felix's thoughts. "What about you pair?" he asked the Denali girls. "What can you do? Do you have any gifts?"

"You know we don't," Irina replied. "Like you, I may add."

"At least I can fight," he snapped back. "How have you lived so long without being able to fight?!"

"By fucking their adversaries," Felix offered. "Are you up for some cross species prostitution?"

Irina looked set to launched for Felix before a wolf's snort caught their attention. They all froze again, listening intently…

Still outside, still safe. For now.

Irina concentrated on the matter at hand - she could punch Felix later. "You've all been Volturi trained," she shot at the group. "You should know what to do in this situation."

"We shouldn't have backed ourselves into this bloody cave," Demetri began to rant. "We should have stayed in the open where we can outrun the wolves if there's too many."

"So helpful, Captain Hindsight," Irina sneered at him. "But its General Foresight you need to engage with now, dick head."

"Okay, okay," Felix said, blocking Irina's view of his little brother. He turned to Odi as a plan formed in his mind. "We know how to do this. You know that thing Caius taught us in training, I don't know what he calls it…"

Irina scoffed. "Helpful as ever."

"Shut up," Felix told her, before getting back to Odi with his plan. "Me and Magnus do it. That thing where the strongest are at the front and they kill what they can and disable the rest, passing them behind them for the weaker fighters to finish off. That thing."

Odi nodded along with an eyebrow raised. "You and my dad do that because it requires strength."

"I know, but you'll have to do."

How very charming, Odi thought, as the boy went on.

"We keep them in the mouth of the cave, we kill what we can and pass the rest behind us."

Brilliant. "And when this lot fail to kill them, we will be surrounded and dead in thirty seconds," Odi pointed out. Brilliant.

It was Felix's turn to be annoyed. "Have you got a better idea?!"

Truth was, Odi didn't have a better plan, or any plan, actually. Getting on board, he bobbed his head to Felix. "Ladies," he said to Corin and Irina. "Get behind us and get ready to start picking off the ones we let through."

"Stay behind us, Dem," Felix said to his brother, pulling the young prince to his feet. "You're worth less in a fight."

"Did you just call me worthless?!" Demetri stood, leaning into his good hip. "What the heck do you mean 'worth less', you cheeky bastard."

"No, I said you're worth less." Felix held his hands apart. "There's a space."

"This is not the time, guys!" Irina got between the boys and pulled Demetri to stand with her. "Kate and Corin should be at the front with you two," she said to the boys at the front. "Kate can use her gift, and Corin has been in the guard for centuries. What's the point of gifts or centuries of training if you can't put it to good use when called upon? You four at the front, me and the worthless at the back."

"I've been trained, too. I'm not worthless," Demetri insisted. "And Kate can barely stand."

Irina knew the boy had been trained, too, of course. Which is why she wanted Demetri at her side to take the brunt of the wolves handed back to them. Kate was a differently matter, though even she had to admit.

"Kate can stand," she said, dragging the girl into position. "As soon as she touches those beasts they will go down. No fighting required."

"Are you sure?" the girl asked her sister. Kate's bleeding had stopped, but the pain in her leg was blinding.

"Sure, sure," Irina insisted. "Just learn against the wall if you have to."

With Odi and Felix in front, then Corin and Kate just behind, Irina and Demetri brought up the rear as they began to enter the tunnel…